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Conservation Resources 



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SLAVES AND SLAVERY: HOW AFFECTED BY THE WAR. 



*' REMARKS 



OF 



HON. JOHN SHERMAN, OF OHIO, 



IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED S.T±3Ej:S, 

April 2, 18G2. 



fif 



The Senate having under consideration the 
following joint resolution — 

" Resolv&J, Thsit the United States ought to co-operate with 
any State which uiiiy adopt gradual abohshment of slavery, 
■giving to siioh St.Tio pecuniary aid, to be used by such State 
ifi its discretion, to compensate for tho inconveniences, pub- 
lic and private, produced by such change of system " — 

Mr, SHERMAN said : 

Mr. President : I have not heretofore deemed 
it my duty to discuss any of the pending pro- 
positions relating to slaves or slavery. It is 
a difiScult question, the bane of American 
politics, the most troublesome subject that has 
ever excited the attention of Congress. The 
war hj»s thrown upon us the necessity of passing 
a variety of bills of the most important charac- 
ter, the details of which it was necessary to 
carefully consider. I have deemed it my duty 
to pay attention, so far as I could, to the details 
of those measures, avoiding all political discus- 
sion. But, sir, I am called upon to vote; and 
representing a constituency of two millions and 
a half of people, who have deep and abiding 
convictions upon the subject of slavery and its 
relations to the General Government, I probably 
should not do my duty to them, did I not 
improve a proper occasion to express my views, 
and, 80 far as I know, the views of the great body 
of the people of Ohio. I shall therefore take 
this occasion to state, as briefly and as distinct- 
ly as I can, my opinions upon the several prop- 
ositions pending in this body on the subject of 
slaves and slavery. They are so intimately 
connected together that I may as well discuss 
the whole in discussing one. 

Slavery jy district of Columbia. 

The first practical question that comes be- 
fore us is the question of slavery in the District 



Of Columbia. It is proposed to emancipate the 
slaves of this District. Two years ago, when 
the census was taken, there were 11,107 free 
negroes, 3,181 slaves, and 60,788 white people 
in this District. Since that time I am informed 
by very credible authority that the number 
of h:ee negroes has been increased to something 
like fifteen thousand — some of them brought 
from the States as servants by officers of the 
Army; some of them belonging to that class of 
persons known as "contrabands," running 
away from disloyal masters in Virginia and 
Maryland, seeking safety in our lines, and find- 
ing employment in this District, and probably 
some coming here for temporary employment- 
so that the number of free negroes now in this 
District is about fifteen thousand. 

I am also informed by equally credible au- 
thority that the number of the slaves in the 
District now is less than fifteen hundred. 
Many of the most healthy, active, valuable 
slaves were removed by their masters before 
the difficulties occurred; some have been re- 
moved since. Many of those hired here by mas- 
ters living in Virginia and Maryland have been 
taken away, and have either gone South or re- 
turned to their homes. The number of slaves 
in this District probably does not now exceed 
fifteen hundred, and may not be over one thou- 
sand. It is apparent, therefore, that this ques- 
tion is an unimportant one, if we look only to 
the number of persons affected by it. To add 
one thousand to the number of free negroes in 
this District is a matter of very Siipall impor- 
tance; and to take from the owners of these one 
thousand negroes their property, is also a mat- 
ter of less importance, as tho bill provides 



all over the country, North and South, have 
here a better opportunity to develop their ca- 
pacity for freedom than anywhere else in the 
United States. Here they perform many of 
the duties necessary to be performed in all civ. 
ilized society. Here they are the laborers, the 
hackmen, the servants, and do a great deal of 
good, and are of great service. I have never 
examined the criminal statistics here ; but so 
far as my observation has gone, I feel bound 
to say that the free negroes of this District 
have behaved themselves very well. They are 
useful, good citizens ; all of them, so far as I 
know, loyal, faithful, willing and ready to do 
the duties that devolve on them in their callings 
and business. I am willing to give the free 
negroes here the highest possible development. 
Here they do not interfere with the peculiar 
prejudices that will always mark them as a de- 
graded caste in other communities. In States 
they must always be held on a lower level. 
Here they can have righfs, and those rights are 
more respected than in any portion of the Uni- 
ted States. I am willing to give them the ad- 
vantage of their position. 

CONSENT OF MARYLAND. 

Mr. President, until within . the last year or 
wo, if the question had been put to me, are you 
in favor of the abolition of slavery in the Dis- 
trict of Columbia ? I should have answered, 
and perhaps did answer in the other House, that 
I was opposed to it for the present. And why ? 
Because I believed that the abolition of slavery 
here would be injurious to Maryland; that as 
this territory was received from Maryland as a 
free gift for the seat of Government, I thought 
■we ought not to interfere with slavery in this 
District without the consent of Maryland. But, 
sir, it seems to me the course of events has 
changed that position. Maryland herself, as 
her Senator has proclaimed upon this floor, 
must look to emancipation. It is a matter of 
social necessity. She will look to emancipa- 
tion ; and if she adopts that policy with or with- 
out the aid of the General Government, I have 
no doubt the resources of Maryland will be 
largely increased. I know that there is a strong 
disposition in Maryland to try the experiment 
of emancipation. It would be lor her interest 
to try it. The addition of a small number to 
the free negroes of this District and the reliev- 
ing of a few slaves from their bondage cannot 
operate injuriously to the Slate of Maryland, 



and therefore I feel relieved from all obligation 
to respect the wishes of the people of Mary- 
land exclusively on this matter, but take a 
broader view of the subj ect, and look at its 
effect throughout the United States. 

If the State of Maryland will but try the ex- 
periment that has been tried in other States, 
they will find the benefits of the policy of eman- 
cipation. There was in the State of Ohio a 
very large portion of the State set aside for 
Virginians, called the Virginia Military District. 
Nearly all of the people of that portion of the 
State of OhiD are the descendants of Virginians. 
They have gone there with their slaves. I have 
often heard from the earlier settlers of Ohio 
about large families from Virginia and Mary- 
land coming to the State to settle on the lands 
granted to them for services in the revolution- 
ary war, and bringing their slaves with them. 
Their slaves became free under the operation 
of the laws of Ohio. They have settled upon 
their lands, divided accor ding to the laws of 
Virginia, and the lands alone are worth three- 
fold what they would have been if they had 
held the negroes still as slaves. That part of 
Ohio is now among the most intelligent, en- 
lightened, and enterprising portions of the State, 
rich in all resources. It embraces the Sciota 
valley and some of the very best lands in our 
State, held under Virginia titles, under Virgin- 
ia laws. Some of the negroes carried by Vir- 
ginians into Ohio are still there, entitled to the 
rights of freedom. I believe that if Maryland 
and Virginia this day would proclaim emanci- 
pation by some gradual system that would not 
break too much on the prejudices of their 
people, the mere value of their lands would be 
enhanced twice the amount of all the nominal 
vjvlue of their slaves. 

These reasons are sufficient to induce me to 
vote for any bill providing for the abolition of 
slavery in this District. 

MODE OF EMANCIPATION. 

The question now occurs, what is the best 
mode of emancipation ? If the duty had been 
imposed upon me to frame a bill for the aboli- 
tion of slavery in this District, I should have 
provided for gradual emancipation. I should 
have taken that famous law of the State of 
Pennsylvania referred to yesterday, framed by 
Franklin and his associates. I should have 
declared that all children born after the 12tk 
day of April, 18G1 — the day when the rebels 



fired upon the'flag at Fort Sumter — should be [ then there would be no inducement for the 
free. I would establish it as a permanent rec- 
ord on the statute-books of my country that the 
first sound of the cannon against the flag of 
our country was the signal of the emancipation 
of the slaves in this District. I think there 
would have been a poetic justice in it. Then 
I should have provided by some general pro- 
visions similar to the statute of Pennsylvania 
for the guardianship and apprenticeship of 
minor children, and also for the liberation of 
slaves who are now under the age of twenty- 
one, when they arrive at the age of twenty- 
eight, or some provision of that kind. I would 
have given no compensation, because, as the 
legislative power of this District, we have the 
right to make this system of gradual emancipa- 
tion without compensation. It was not granted 
by any of the States ; and I think whenever 
you have a precedent to follow, it is always safer 
and wiser to follow that precedent. 

If the Senator from Indiana could so modify 
his bill as to meet the condition of the times 
in this District. I would vote for it as an amend- 
ment. The bill introduced by him'is imperfect. 
I have read it with great care. It was written 
some fifteen years ago, and intended for a dif- 
ferent state of facts from what exist now. He 
will see, if he examines it carefully, that it would 
not do to pass his bill without modification. But 
whetlxer that proposition is adopted by the Sen- 
ate or not, I am willing to vote for any other 
measure which will emancipate the slaves in 
this District, and provide a reasonable and lim- 
ited compensation to the owners. 

The objections to gradual emancipation 
ought not to be overlooked, although they are 
not insuperable. One objection is, that it would 
continue the agitation of this question for a 
short time. It probably might induce efforts 
to repeal or modify the law before it took effect 
on all the slaves in the District. It would be 
difficult to guard against evasions of the law. 
The children now growing up, a few years hence 
might be smuggled out of the District, and it 
would be very difficult to follow them aud trace 
them, or enable them to assert their freedom. 
There would be no inducement in that case to 
the owners to educate them. There would be 
no legal guardians for their children. Their 
mothers being slaves, as a matter of course, 
they could not have legal guardians, unless you 
should make the masters their guardians ; and 



masters to educate them. These are practical 
objections against gradual emancipation ; but 
still, as I said before, if I were framing a bill, 
I would provide for gradual instead of imme- 
diate emancipation, and without compensation. 

VOTE OF PEOPLE IN THE DISTRICT. 

A proposition was made yesterday by the 
Senator from Virginia [Mr. Willey,] to sub- 
mit this matter to the people. I think it would 
have been unwise to have adopted that sugges- 
tion. The people in this District are now in a 
chrysalis state ; they are changing. You could 
not submit this question to the people without 
at once bringing up the question of suffrage. 
Who shall vote upon the proposition ? Shall 
those residents who have come here within the 
last six months, in view of the present difficul- 
ties, vote ? 

Mr. WILLEY. The amendment provided 
who should vote — all over twenty-one years of 
age, who had been residents of the city for one 
year. 

Mr. SHERMAN. That would have been 
clearly unjust. You limit the right of suffrage 
to the people who have been residing here one 
year. How many of them are there? How 
many of them are directly interested in the 
question on which they would be called to vote ? 
How many of them would be the owners of 
slaves, or the relatives of the owners of slaves ? 
You do not allow a man to sit upon a jury who 
is interested to the amount of one cent in the 
matter in controversy. You do not allow a 
man to sit as judge who has a relative a 
party in a suit. And yet nearly all those who 
have been here one year are either interested 
in slaves themselves or have relatives who are 
interested in slaves. Besides, if you submitted 
this question to the people, you would stir up 
strife and contention in this District. I think 
it would be far better for us to take the respon- 
sibility. The Constitution invests in Congress 
the exclusive power over this subject, aud, for 
one, I am not willing to transfer that responsi- 
bility to the people of the District, but would 
rather take it myself than submit it to the peo- 
ple, and thereby create contention and strife 
among them. 

CHOICE OF BILLS. 

I have read carefully all the bills on this 
subject, and I will state frankly to the Senator 



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from Maine [Mr. Morrill] one or two objec- ] 
tions that occurred to me in regard to his bill, 
that induced me to think that the bill framed by 
the Senator from New Hampshire [Mr. Clark] 
was the preferable one. The bill of the Sena- 
tor from Maine does not define loyalty, or did 
not when I read it some days ago. Perhaps 
he has modified it iu that particular. It did not 
sufficiently define loyalty, a word of such vari- 
ous meaning that I think it ought not to be 
adopted in a statute without a definition limit' 
ing and confining the meaning. Perhaps that 
has bees modified. 

Mr. MORRILL. You will find the terms 
used in the two bills are now equivalent. 

Mr. SHERMAN. Another objection to the 
bill is, that it establishes new courts. It pro- 
vides for commissioners, when the Court of 
Claims is the very tribunal, of all others, to try 
the question. I am willing to trust this matter 
to the Court of Claims, thus saving the creation 
of a new tribunal. I can see no reason for the 
appointment of commissioners, whom we do 
not know in advance, who are not ofBcers of 
the Government, but" who have to be made of- 
ficers of the Government, at a considerable ad- 
ditional expense. I, therefore, think it would 
be much wiser to leave this question of the as- 
sessment of compensation to the Court of Claims, 
a court already constituted for the investigation 
of this class of business. 

COLONIZATION. 

There is another objection to the bill of the 
Senator from Maine which I hope will be obvi- 
ated ; and that is, it does not provide for colo- 
nization. If it is our duty to emancipate these 
slaves, it is equally our duty to give the negroes 
of this District, and, indeed, of the whole coun- 
try, the right of choice whether they will live 
here in a land where they will always be held 
as a subordinate race, or try the experiment of 
freedom in another and a more favorable clime. 
I think it is a just and politic idea that if we, 
as a nation, owe these people freedom, we also 
are under a further obligation to allow them to 
develop their freedom, and their capacity to 
govern themselves, in a country where they will 
not be Inet at every step with caste and preju- 
dice, hate and contumely ; where they can ex- 
ercise no political rights ; where they cannot 
vote •, where they cannot serve as jurors ; where 
they cannot exercise any of the rights of free- 
men. When you give negroes freedom in this 



country you give them freedom Gripped of every- 
thing but the name. You make them freemen 
without the right to govern themselves. There- 
fore, sir, I hold that in this bill, and in every bill 
which looks to emancipation, there ought to be 
some provision which will enable any person 
affected by it to seek freedom elsewhere, where 
he may have all the benefits of free society of 
his own color, of his own. kind ; where he will 
not have to meet the prej udices of caste all the 
days of his life. Although the proposition of 
the Senator from Wisconsin [Mr. Doolittle] 
was voted down by a tie vote, I yet hope that 
he will see that that provision is ingrafted in 
the bill, and then I shall vote for it much more 
readily. 

THE position OF THE REPTTBLICAN PARTY AS TO 
SLAVERY IN STATES. 

Mr. President, I have now said all I designed 
to say on the subject of slavery in this District ; 
and if I were speaking alone to that bill I might 
here end my remarks. But the Senator from 
Kentucky [Mr. Davis] sees in this bill a dis- 
position in Congress to interfere with slavery in 
the States. He thinks this is an entering wedge, , 
a part of a system of policy which will lead to 
interference by Congress with slavery in the 
States. That is his theory. He did not re- 
gard the bill in itself as of so much moment ; 
for I have already shown that it can operate 
upon comparatively few persons and cannot do 
any injury ; but he fears that it is part of the 
policy of the dominant party, now controlling 
all the organs of the Government, to violate 
their pledges and interfere with slavery in the 
•States. Let us see whether there is any ground 
for that fear. 

If the Republican party. has been distin- 
guished for anything at all, it has been for its 
moderation, almost its timidity. It has never 
assumed an affirmative policy on this question of 
slavery since its organization to this hour — never. 
It has always been defensive. It never affirmed 
a single proposition of a legislative character 
until this proposition to abolish slavery in the 
District of Columbia was brought forward, per- 
haps as a Republican measure, or will be voted 
for by the great body of Republicans. In the 
whole contest in regard to Kansas, It was 
simply defensive. In the Lecomptou contro- 
versy, and in all the controversies that have oc- 
curred iu regard to slaves and slavery since the 
organization of the Republican party, it has 



been purely and simply a defensive organiza- 
tion. I think tlie Senator will find great diffi- 
culty in framing the allegations for his indict- 
ment to show that this party ever proposed any 
offensive or aggressive measure in regard to 
slavery in the States. 

I have had the honor of holding a seat in 
Congress since the organization of the Repub- 
lican party, aiid I know from observation here 
that this party, as a political organization, has 
never proposed any aggresive measure. It has 
always been defensive. It has stood here, with 
the prejudices of the people of this District 
against it, with a powerful Defcocratic organi- 
zation against it, with a strong caste in the 
southern States against it, always on the de- 
fensive, endeavoring to prevent the extension 
of slavery, and to prevent the practical over- 
throw of a prohibition which had been framed 
by our fathers against the extension of slavery 
north and west of Missouri. I do not know any 
measure on which it has taken an aggressive 
position. 

Mr. DAVIS. Will the gentleman allow me 
to make a disclaimer? I did not intend to im- 
pute against the Republican party that line of 
policy. I only intended to make that imputa 
tion against the Abolition party. I trust that 
there is now a line of separation between the 
Republican party and the Abolition party. 

Mr. SHERMAN. Mr. President, I know 
it is easy to state distinctions of this kind ; but 
in my experience our opponents have generally 
denounced us under whatever name they chose 
to call us, and put us all in the same category. 
They do not draw very nice distinctions. As, 
for example, the Senator from Massachusetts, 
[Mr. SuMXER,] as he has a perfect right to do, 
introduced a series of resolutions giving his 
idea about the effect of the war upon the polit- 
ical status of the States, and at once those res- 
olutions are seized upon as the dogmas of the 
Republican party, and we are denounced for 
them, although candid men must know that 
they are but the emanation of a single indi- 
vidual who has decided convictions on this 
subject, and who is far in advance of any polit- 
ical organization in this country. 

MEASURES OF CONCILIATION. 

Now, Mr. President, in the platform of the 
Republican party, at Chicage, we adopted a 
resolution which declared in the most emphatic 
language the rights of tha States. After Mr. 



Lincoln's election, it was manifest that we were 
in the face of a civil war ; the plot of these se- 
ceding traitors had begun to be developed. 
They had aided us in the election of Mr. Lin- 
coln. Such men as Keitt and that class of 
seceding conspirators in the southern States, 
for the purpose of exciting the prejudices of 
the southern people, misrepresented the Repub- 
lican party, making it a bugbear in the south- 
ern States, and then aided the Republican 
party in gaining a political victory. After 
having accomplished that purpose they sought 
to overthrow the Government because the Re- 
publican party had succeeded. All this was 
foreseen. It was the anxious desire of nearly 
every man in Congress at the last regular ses- 
sion to avoid this civil war. We in the north- 
ern States thought it was inevitable, because 
we knew that no concession which we would 
dare to yield to them would be satisfactory to 
this class of people ; that they intended to pre- 
cipitate this country into a civil war. We did 
all we could to prevent it. We yielded and 
yielded, until yielding was a humiliation and a 
shame. When I look over the Journals of the 
last Congress and see how far I went myself in 
this policy of conciliation, I am almost sur- 
prised. Yet, sir, no sooner was Mr. Lincoln 
elected than South Carolina commenced acts 
of hostility against the Government of the Uni- 
ted States. The first matter of complaint 
against the people of the northern States was 
that they had passed personal liberty bills. In 
order to set them at rest on that point, a pre- 
amble and resolution were introduced into the 
House on the lYth of December, 18G0, which I 
will read : 

" WUcreas tho CousUtution of the United States is the su- 
preme law of the land, and its ready and faithful observance 
tho duty of ail good and law-abiding citizens : Therefore, 

"Kesolued, That wu deprecate the spirit of disobedience to 
that Constitution wherever manifested, and that we earnestly 
recommend tho repeal of all statutes, including personal 
liberty bills, so-called, enacted by State Legislatures, con- 
flicting with, and in violation of that sacred mstrumeut, and 
tho laws of Congress made in pursuance thereof." 

This resolution, calling upon all the States 
to repeal their personal liberty bills, was passed 
by a unanimous vote ; and the States, acting in 
the same spirit, did proceed to reconsider them, 
and, in some cases, repeal them, although they 
were shown to be totally ineffective ; and for 
ten years they had never caused the escape of 
a single fugitive slave. 

Then, when that was done, they complained 
that Congress would interfere with slavery in 



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the States. We had placed it in our platform 1 
that such was not our purpose. We had told 
them iu all our speeches that such was not our 
purpose. Still they pretended not to believe us. 
The conspirators did believe us; but they wanted 
to agitate their people. In order to put an end 
to that complaint, a resolution was introduced 
into the other House of Congress by me, as 
follows : 

" Resolved, That noitlier Congress nor tho people or gov- 
ernmeuts of the uou-slaveholding States have the right to 
legislate upon or interfere with slavery in any of tho slave- 
holding States in the Union." 

That resolution was adopted by a unanimous 
vote, and these men knew it^ 

A committee was appointed to see if further 
measures of conciliation could. not be adopted 
in order to avert civil war, and Mr. .Corwin, a 
distinguished citizen of my own State, reported 
various propositions. All the Territories of the 
United States were organized on laws passed 
by Congress, which, I believe, received the.unan- 
imous vote of both Houses. These laws were 
framed by Mr. Green, of Missouri, and by Mr. 
Grow, one a Democrat and the other a Repub- 
lican, and were passed by the unanimous vote 
of both Houses ; and therefore that question 
•was- out of the way. 

Then it was said that although Congress now 
disclaimed its purpose to interfere with slavery? 
yet at some time in the dim future, when the 
number of free States should become very large. 
Congress would then interfere. We knew that 
was an idle fear, expressed for the purpose of 
agitating the southern mind ; but to appease it, 
both Houses of Congress, after several States 
had seceded, passed an amendment to the Con- 
stitution, declaring that the Constitution never 
should be so altered as to allow Congress or 
any non-slaveholding State to interfere with 
slavery in the slave States. 

After Mr. Lincoln was inaugurated — after he 
had proclaimed the same doctrine iu words 
familiar to the Senate — after he had made 
every pledge and promise — after this party, then 
assuming for the first time the functions of the 
Government, had made every pledge and pro- 
mise, these conspirators commenced a civil 
war. Even then the Republican party evinced 
every disposition to conciliate. Even then the 
Administration did what I never approved — 
negotiated with South Carolina for leave to 
feed our soldiers in Fort Sumter. They even 
submitted to that humiliation. So anxious 



were the northern people and the Republicans 
of this country to avoid a civil war, that I be- 
lieve they would have done anything iu reason 
to convince their southern brethren that it was 
not their purpose to oppress them or injure 
them in the slightest degree. That was the 
feeling in the House ; I know it was my own. It 
was the feeling of the people of my State, 
The anti-slavery sentiment of this country 
would have been satisfied by the defensive vic- 
tory of the Republican party, for that is all it 
was, and this country would have made rapid 
advances to prosperity, unparalleled in ancient 
or in modern times. But the conspira,tors, who, 
losing the fruits of office, sought to drag their 
country into civil war, would not let it be so, 
and the loyal people of the country were com- 
pelled to appeal to God and the arms that God 
gave them. 

THE CONDUCT OF THE WAR BY REPUBLICAN 
PARTY. 

Not only did we do everything to avoid this 
trouble, but even after it came upon us the lib- 
erality of the Republican party has been mani- 
fested on this subject of slavery. When a res'©- 
lution was introduced at the last session of 
Congress, by Mr. Crittenden, declaring the 
purposes of the war, that it was not the purpose 
to interfere with slavery, that resolution was 
voted for by all. Every one voted for it ; and 
this v/as after our brothers' blood had been 
shed, and after the heat of the contest had com- 
menced. Not only that ; all our'generals, Hal- 
leek, Buell, Sherman, McClellan — all the gene- 
rals who were at the head of departments and 
divisions — proclaimed t&e same doctrine wher- 
ever they went. The flag of our country never 
entered into a slave State unless it was pro- 
claimed by the general commanding, by the 
political authorities, and by the President, that 
it was not the purpose to interfere with slavery 
in the States. Not only that ; but we have now 
the testimony of a remarkable document, which 
I will ask the Secretary to read, in which the 
conspirators confess that they led their people 
to war and revolution by false pretences, in 
which they stamp themselves with the stain of 
dishonor. I refer to the communication of 
Yancey, Rost, and others, to Earl Russell, dated 
the 14th of August, 1861. , 

The Secretary read, as follows : 

" It was from no fear that tho slaves would be liberated 
that secession took place. The very party in power has 



9 



proposed to guaranty slavery forever in the States if the 
South would but rcmiiin iu tUo Union. Mr. Lincoln's mes- 
sage proposes no Ir^iCilnm to the slave, but auuonnces sub- 
jectiou of his owner to the will of the Union ; iu other words, 
to the will of the North. Even after the battle of Bull Run, 
both branches of the Congress at Washington passed rcso- 
hltions that the war is only waged in order to uphold that 
[pro-.«iaveryl Constitution, and to ouforeo the laws, [many 
of tbi.-m pro-slavory,] and out of one hundred and seventy- 
two votes in t he lower House they received all but two, 
and in the Senate all but one vote. As the Army com- 
menced its march, the commanding general issued an order 
that no slaves should be received into or allowed to follow 
the camp. The great object of the war, therefore, as now 
ofiBcially announced, is not to free the slave, but to keep 
him in subjection to his owner, and to control his labor 
through the legislative channels which th« Lincoln Govern- 
ment designs to force upon the master. The undersigned, 
therefore, submit with confldencc that, as £;ir as the anti- 
slavery sentimoDt of England is concerned, it can have no 
sympa'thy with the North ; nay, it will probably become 
disgusted witha canting hypocrisy which would oalist those 
sympathies on false xiretoucos." 

ENFORCEMENT OF OBNOXIOUS LAW3. 

Mr. SHERMAN. Mr. President, as a fur- 
ther evidence, and a very peculiar evidence, to 
show that on this subject of slavery the Repub- 
lican party has not forgot its promise to respect 
and obey the laws, I will refer to a case iu my 
own State. The president of one of the col- 
leges of our State, a man of learning and char- 
acter, is now held in the jail in the city of 
Cleveland, convicted — convicted under your fu- 
gitive-slave law, in the Western Reserve — con- 
victed at Cleveland — of aiding a fugitive to 
escape. That conviction was rendered long 
after this war commenced ; and a judge sitting 
in Cleveland sentenced him to six months' im- 
prisonment and to a fine of $300. This edu- 
cated clergyman is now suffering the penalty 
of hia conviction in the jail of the city of Cleve- 
land. So careful have been the people of Ohio 
to respect the laws in favor of slavery, that they 
have done what at least appears to be, if it is 
not, gross injustice. The Rev. George Gordon 
is now there, and has suffered four months in 
that jail ; and although hundreds and thousands 
of people have petitioned for his pardon, al- 
though the general sense of the community in 
which he lives was against the conviction, al- 
though he took no part in the crime, but simply 
stood by and did not raise his hand to prevent 
it, yet so careful have been the Administration 
to protect the rights of the South, and the duties 
and the obligations of the free States to the 
slave States, that that clergyman, the head of a 
college, a man of high character, now suffers 
as a felon in your jail. If ever a free people 
in the world gave an evidence of their obedi- 
ence to law, and if ever an Administration 
showed its regard for law in enforcing it in a 
hard case, this has. I cannot but think, and I 



do not utter it in any complaining spirit, that 
when clemency his been dealt out so liberally 
to men who have taken up arms against the 
Government, when open traitors have been 
treated with marked distinction, that this person, 
who committed his offence from his excess of 
conscience, ought to be pardoned. 

TREATMENT OF PRISONERS. 

We have shown our forbearance on all these 
questions to our open enemies. We have treated 
the prisoners captured in this war with the most 
marked distinction. An extraordinary and un- 
justifiable case has occurred in Ohio, which 
now excites a great deal of feeling there, and 
which illustrates the mode and manner in which 
prisoners are treated. It seems that some thir- 
teen or fourteen hundred of the Fort Donelson 
prisoners were sent to Columbus, Ohio, under 
the authority of the United States, and put in 
charge at Camp Chase. In order to illustrate 
the strange liberality of our Government in 
dealing with slaves and slavery, I desire to have 
a portion of the report made to the Senate of 
the State of Ohio on the subject read. It is a 
remarkable document. 

The Secretary read as follows : 

*' Subseijuently your committee visited Camp Chase, and 
by the worthy commandant of the post. Colonel Granville 
Moody, were shown through the three prisons, and kindly 
allowed all the liberties necessary to further the object of 
their visit. 

" Tour committee found some thirteen hundred persons 
conflned in the three prisons, mostly from Tennessee, Ken- 
tuck.y, Missouri, and Mississippi. Their quarters were in 
all ret^pects as good, and in soine a little better, than those 
of the soldiers outside, and your committee were assured 
that the rations distributed were the same iu quantity and 
quality as those given to our own men. No complaint was 
made as to any of these thiugs, but there was a general ex- 
pression of satisfaction therewith. 

" Your committee fouud seventy -four negroes in the pris- 
ons, mostly taken at Fort Donelson. Of these, from what 
they could learn, a few ware free when taken, having been 
hired by olhcers as cooks and servants. The remainder, 
perhaps fifty in number, were slaves in attendance upon 
ilK'ir masters, and while so employed, were taken along 
with their masters. None of them were in arms ; all of them 
having been ret^iined for menial service merely. Since their 
capture they have traveled with their masters, attending 
and serving them as before. On their arrival at Columbus 
they took charge of and carried the baggage of their former 
masters from the depot to Camp Chase, the men, having no 
servants, being compelled to carry tboir own, as our sol- 
diers do on similar occasions. Arrived at the camp, tho 
privates were, as far as possible, separated from the officers, 
and for obvious reasons placed in dill'erent prisons ; but the 
negroes were placed in the same prisons with the officers, 
who were their former masters. Why ? unless that they 
might continue to attend and serve their former masters ; 
and they have ever since done so — cooking, washing, wait^ 
ing upon and servihg them just as before their capture — the 
relation of master and slave being as rigorously maintained 
by the master, and as fully recognised by the negroes and 
the other inmates of the prison, as it ever was in the State 
of Tennessee. 

" But why were these slaves taken at all? They were 
not, aud had not been iu arras against the Government.— 
their presence at Fort Donelson was not even voluntary. 
Why are they retained in prison? They have done no 
wrong — they deserve no punishment. Is it to furnish rebel 
officers with servants? And was it for this, they were 



10 



transnorteJ at the expense of the Government and are now 
subsisted at her cost? Is our constitutional provision tlius 
to be made a nullity, and slavery practically established in 
Ohio? And this under the protection and at the expense ol' 
the Federal Government. 

" As to the rebel officers released on parole, your com- 
mittee could not g(-tmuch definite information, other than 
that, with few exceptions, these paroles were granted by or- 
der of General Halloclc. That the clemency so shown was 
mistaken, thd following facts as to the conduct of these offi- 
cers while at Columbus will show. They came wearing their 
side-arms ; stopped at the princii^al hotels, registered their 
names as " Col.," " Maj.," or " Capt. ," with the significant 
letters " C. S. A." added ; appearing from day to day in 
rebel uniforms [some of them gaudy — all of them noticea- 
ble] in the offices and parlors and at the public taibles of 
these hotels, and in the streets and drives of the city ; fre- 
quenting the theatre and other places of public amusement, 
and visiting tlio Senate and House chambers, where, with 
marked consideration, they have been invited to privileged 
seats within the bar ; at all these places, and on all these 
occasions, giving expression to sentiments of continued ad- 
herence to the rebel cause, and of bitter hostility to the 
Government and the people of the United States.'-' 

^: it ■*■ * * li * 

" But who is to blame ? Your committee is satisfied that 
Colonel Moody has done his whole duty in the premises. 
They are equally satisfied that the Governor has endeavor- 
ed to discharge his duties honestly, faithfully, and impar- 
tially. His position has been one of great delicacy ; his 
control over the camp and prisons being by courtesy of the 
Federal authorities, and not by any right as Governor of 
Ohio. He has probably done all he well could in the prem- 
ises. The responsibility, then, rests with the Federal au- 
thorities, and our only remedy is by protest to the Presi- 
dent." 

Mr. SHERM A.N. Sir, that report shows that 
the fears of my friend from Kentucky of this 
Administration, or of the Republican party, 
under their present leadership, are groundless, 
when even in Ohio, where our laws and our 
Constitution forbid slaves and slavery, where 
the public sentiment of our people is all against 
slavery, where there is not one in ten thousand 
who believes that any man ought to be intrusted 
with the ownership of another man ; that there, 
under the authority of the Federal Government, 
slaves are held to wait on rebel officers taken 
in arms against the Government, and are fed 
and have been transported at the expense of 
the Government. If that does not evince liber- 
ality, I do not know what will. Why, sir, con- 
trast the conduct of our Government in this 
war with the barbarity shown by the rebels. 
Think of the scenes that have occurred in this 
war — of skulls taken as drinking cups — carry- 
ing us back to the barbaric ages. Think of the 
burning of the beautiful village of Guyandotte 
and the murder of its citizens, women as well 
as men. Think of the injuries done in the State 
of Kentucky by the hordes that have overrun 
that State under Hindman and Buckner and 
others, burning and ravaging. Sir, contrast the 
conduct of these rebel authorities seeking to 
overthrow our Government, with the conduct 
of this Government stretching forth its hand 
with mighty power, and yet as gently and as 



mildly as any Government ever conducted war> 
always with marked respect to the peculiar in- 
stitutions of every community in which its army 
marches, everywhere respecting the local law, 
and even carrying the local law into other 
States. I tell my friend from Kentucky that as 
long as this Administration is in power he need 
not fear any injury to his State or its institutions. 
If any have a right to complain — and I think 
they have — it is the people of the free States, 
whose sentiments are outraged by such a case 
as that in Columbus, a transaction that will not 
be tolerated if it can be avoided ; although we 
will not secede, even if rebel masters of Ten- 
nessee should still hold the slaves of Tennessee 
to serve rebel masters in Ohio. 

LIBERALITY TO POLITICAL ADVERSARIES. 

Not only that, sir ; this Republican part/, 
which is the bugbear of all the southern peo- 
ple, is the most liberal of all to political adver- 
saries. Who is at the head of your Army, dis- 
pensing patronage with a lordly hand and a 
lavish profusion ? A Democrat, appointed by 
a Republican administration. Who receive 
that patronage ? Who hold the high offices in 
your Government ? Who fill the offices in your 
various Departments here? The majority of 
them Democrats, men who hissed Republicans 
here over and over again in the other House. 
Was there ever such forbearance ? What Re- 
publicans dispense your patronage ? Certainly _ 
not the young, active, zealous spirits of the party, 
who in the heat and turmoil of political strife 
won a victory. These men stand aside lest 
their names might frighten timid conservative 
Union men of the border States, while the mid- 
dle men, who watch the varying chances of the 
contest, new converts, old politicians or patri- 
otic Democrats, fill the offices and dispense the 
patronage. Why, sir, so anxious was the Repub- 
lican party to conciliate the conservative senti- 
ment of the northern States and the Union sen- 
timent of the southern States, that we chose as 
standard-bearer a gentleman who had but little 
experience in public life, who had given no 
cause of prejudice, who was himself a Ken- 
tuckian by birth, who was but two years in 
Congress, who had no record against slavery ; 
and he, following the same policy, has revived 
many gentlemen of the past generation, and 
placed them in power around him. We do not 
complain of that. I simply introduce it to show 
that there never was a party more magnani- 



11 



mous, more liberal, and more generous to 
everybody but its own personal and partisan 
friends. 

BEORGiNlZATION OF DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

What did tliis party ^et Tor all this ? I no- 
ticed in the papers the other day a remarkable 
thing. It v/aa this : 

" A Democratic conference was hold lastnight, continuing 
In session until a late hour. The call was sigi'cil hy all, ex- 
ooptiug four or five, of the members of Congress who were 
ciected as Democrats." 

I also notice in the papers, much to iny re- 
gret, that 

" A paper has been circulate.l, and signed by nearly all 
the Democratic monihers of Congress, and by Senator Car- 
LiLE, having in view the rallying of the Dvniooratic party, 
and a convention in this city at an early day, to give direc- 
tion to its future movements." 

In the meeting I have just mentioned, 

" Reprcsent-itive Corning presided, and Representatives 
I'BNTJLSTO.v and Shiel acted as secretaries." 

Resolutions were introduced by my colleague 
in the other House, Mr. Vallandigham 

Mr. CARLILE. If my friend will allow me, 
so far as I had any connection with that meet- 
ing, I am ready to explain it. I signed a paper 
here at my desk, handed to me by some one, 
without looking at it further than to see that its 
object was for some gentlemen to meet at the 
roooi of a member of Congress at a hotel in this 
city for the purpose of conference ; I went 
there. No action looking to a party organiza- 
tion as a party was had, so far as my knowl- 
edge extends. There was a free interchange of 
opinions among gentlemen who were there ; 
and I was glad to see, so far as I could ascer- 
tain, a determination to support the Adminis- 
tration in all proper efforts to suppress this re- 
bellion, maintain the Constitution, and restore 
the Union. If there was anything concluded 
upon, I think that was the conclusion at which 
that conference arrived. Resolutions, I believe, 
had been prepared — or, when I went in I under- 
stood they were in course of preparation — but 
I know of no resolution having been adopted 
and sent forth by that meeting to the country. 
I do not think it is justly chargeable with being 
an effort to organize a party movement in op- 
position to the constitutional efforts now being 
made to restore the Union. 

Mr. LATHAM. Will the Senator allow me 
to say a word ? 

Mr. SHERMAN. Certainly. 

Mr. LATHAM. I was called upon, and I 
believe both my colleague and myself signed 
the call referred to by the honorable Senator 



from Ohio, but so little impression did it make 
on either of us as to its being a party organi- 
zation, that, I believe, neither of us attended. 
I CBrtainly did not ; and I believe he did not 
either. 

Mr. SHERMAN. As a matter of course I 
have only the public prints for what I say. I 
find in a Philadelphia paper that resolutions 
were introduced by Mr. Vallandigham from a 
committee of which he was chairman, declar- 
ing in substance " that the restoration of the 
Union and maintenance of the Constitution re- 
quire that the organization and principles of 
the Democratic party of the United States 
should be fully and faithfully adhered to, and 
inviting all citizens, without distinctions of sec- 
tions or party, to co-operate with the Democ- 
racy in supporting the Constitution and restor- 
ing the old Union." 

Now, sir, I have no right to complain of the 
reorganization of the Democratic party, or any- 
thing thatjbelongs to it. It is very well known 
that I never belonged to the Democratic party, 
and have no sympathy with it. Although some 
of its members are my personal friends, yet I 
have no faith in it. All the disunionists of the 
country were opposed to the Republican party. 
The great body of the men who are now fight- 
ing against the Government were Democrats. 
I do not know that a single member of the 
Republican party — the organization to which I 
am proud to belong — ever took up arms against 
his Government, or ever threatened to take np 
arms against his Government. I have shown 
you, sir, by facts that no man can controvert, 
that there never was a party more liberal and 
generous to open enemies and manly foes, or 
to political adversaries. Indeed we have surren- 
dered them everything ; we have given them 
otlices, honor, power, patronage, in a self sacri- 
ficing spirit without example. I do not care 
how soon they reorganize the old Democratic 
party. But does it not show to us. Republican 
Senators, that it is necessary that we should 
have a party organization ; that instead of wan- 
dering some here, some there, some every- 
where, we should say what we will stand upon, 
and what we ought to do on the various ques- 
tions growing out of the prosecution of this 
war? 

REPUBLICANS MUST HAVE A DEFINITE POLICY. 

I say, then, Mr. President, that it Is impor- 
tant that the party controlling the action of this 



12 



Government should have a definite policy. We 
cannot avoid the responsibility, and we ought 
not to do ao if we could. We are in the major- 
ity in this body. We are in the majority in 
the other House. We have a Republican Ad- 
ministration. If we do not show to the people 
oi the United States that we have a defiuite 
policy, and have manhood to stand by it, and 
intelligence enough to administer it, we ought 
to be overthrown. I would not weep over the 
grave of a party that will not stand by its 
friends and by its principles. I would not be- 
long to a party that has not the manhood to 
proclaim all that it intends to do, all that it 
aeeks to accomplish, and to use its power to 
accomplish that purpose. Parties can only be 
justified when they are used as instruments to 
accomplish some great purpose ; and unless we 
use ours to accomplish some noble and great 
purpose, the Republican party will melt away 
like a storm of snow on a bright April day. 
We ought to adopt a policy, and adhere to it. 
Let me state some few simple propositions that 
we ought to adopt, and then I shall not trespass 
further on the Senate. 

We ought nov/ to abolish slavery in this Dis- 
trict. We have the right, and it is our duty to 
do it ; aud if we had wasted less time in doing 
it, it would probably be just as well. We ought, 
then, religiously to adhere to the promises we 
made to the people of this country when Mr. 
Lincoln was elected President. We ought re- 
ligiously to abstain from all interference with 
the domestic institutions of the slave or the 
free States. We ought to stand by the Consti- 
tution as it is, by the Union as it is. Whether 
rebels are in arms or not, our duty is to stand 
by our pledges, to stand by our manhood ; and 
I, for one, will do it. No temptation shall 
swerve me from that straight and narrow path. 
Our recorded promise is not only a bond of po- 
litical faith, but it is the word of honor, binding 
on us as honorable men to each other and to 
our country. We must not be driven to inter- 
fere with the relation of master and slave, or 
with any other local institution of any State, 
one step further than the Constitution gives us 
the just authority and power to do. 

EMANCIPATION BY STATES AIDED BY UNITED 
STATES. 

But it is said that the resolution of the Presi- 
dent now before us looks to an interference with 
slavery in the States. I do not so construe it. 



It does not assert the power or advise us to in- 
terfere with slavery in the States. On the con- 
trary, it by necessary implication, as strong as 
express denial, denies the power. The language 
is that the United States ought to cooperate 
with any State which may adopt gradual abolish- 
ment of slavery. If the State of Maryland 
should, in its wisdom, see fit to commence a 
system of gradual emancipation of slaves, would 
they not have the right to call upon us for aid 
and assistance ? We here announce before- 
hand that we will give them pecuniary aid, but 
not until they call for it. It is right that we 
should announce that doctrine. It is right that 
they should inaugurate that system ; and I be- 
lieve that in the providence of Almighty God 
the system will be inaugurated more rapidly 
even than we now hope for. If I were a citizen 
of the State of Maryland, or any of the border 
States, with my present convictions, I would 
raise the banner of emancipation full high ex- 
tended, and never lower it until there was not 
a slave in the State. But as a citizen of the 
State of Ohio, as a member of the Senate of the 
United States, I have no power over this sub- 
ject; aud I will not be dragged or induced to 
interfere with that relation until the States 
themselves, by their own voluntary action, 
abolish slavery, or propose to abolish it, and 
call upon us for aid. 

Why should we not give them aid ? By giv- 
ing them aid we accomplish great purposes. 
If by aiding these border States to remove sla- 
very, we get rid of it, we banish from the Halls 
of Congress a disturbing element which in some 
form or other will permeate this body and 
every political organization in this country. It 
is for the peace and quiet and comfort of our 
people we should aid any State desiring to 
emancipate their slaves. 

Besides, the policy of emancipation would 
tend to develop the resources of the States in 
a wonderful degree. Sir, I visited, the other 
day, the Chesapeake bay, James river, and 
York river. It surprises me beyond expression 
that that magnificent region, with resources 
unrivalled in this country, is not now peopled 
by a million of men. When I look upon those 
deep bays, those fertile fields, requiring only 
energetic labor to develop them, when I see 
those marts of commerce in the very centre of 
our Atlantic coast, I wonder in amazement 
that a million of men are not now crowded 



13 



there, delvlug and striking and working with 
honest toil for an honest reward. I never was 
impressed with it until I saw it. I could not 
comprehend how Virginia had lost all the na 
tural advantages that her position, her climate, 
her beautiful coasts, her beautiful rivers and 
bays, gave her. But, sir, there is no other 
cause except that labor, upon which all civili- 
zation depends — labor, upon which everything 
depends, which has built up New York, New 
England, p.nd the West, is there degraded by 
the presence of slaves, so that the master must 
live on the labor of the slaves, and the slaves 
must work for the master without hope of 
reward. 

Why, sir, as my friend from Maine [Mr. Fes- 
sknden] said vei"y eloquently yesterday, if the 
State of Virginia could be relieved from this 
burden she would grow like a giant. Sixty 
years ago Ohio was a wilderness ; now she has 
two and a half millions of people. I believe 
that if Virginia was a free State now, in thirty 
years from this time she would ^contain three 
or four millions of people. Therefore, I say 
that, if I were a citizen of a border State, I 
would at once raise the banner of gradual eman- 
cipation ; I would be just to the owner of slaves 
and treat him fairly. I would then call on the 
General Government for aid ; and for one, if I 
should happen to be a member of this body, or 
of any politieal body in this Government, I 
will give that aid cordially and freely. 

But it is said that Congress by giving this 
aid would imerfere with slavery. The resolu- 
tion of the President does not say that Congress 
shall render this aid, but that the United States 
ought to co-operate. It does not say Congress, 
nor the Senate, nor the President. It may be 
necessary to call upon the States ; and I think 
I can say in advance that if Kentucky should 
free her slaves, Ohio would gladly respond to 
anything that Kentucky would ask. She would 
gladly pay the debt she owes from the war of 
1812 by any aid that Kentucky might ask of 
her. Whether Congress has the power or not 
ia a question that I do not now discuss, beeause 
it is not yet matured ; but that the United States 
86 a Government, this aggregate of States, this 
great Government, ought to aid in the gradual 
abolition of slavery in the States when the 
States themselves call for it, I have not a parti- 
cle of doubt. 

But, sir, there is another reason why this 



Government ought to aid the border States, 
whenever they desire it, in emancipating slaves. 
It is a reason that stands higher than any other 
merely pecuniary reason. It is one which ia 
implanted in the minds of the civilized world. 
Slavery is wrong. That is a reason that stands 
back of all others ; one which would induce 
me as a member of a Christian civilized commu- 
nity to extend the aid when it is asked, not be- 
fore ; because I have no power to do it before. 
Slavery is wrong. That is the moral conviction 
of our people. It is the moral conviction of 
the civilized world. England, France, and all 
the countries whose commercial sympathies are 
with the South, dislike to aid the South because 
they would thereby aid slavery. Wherever you 
find that sentiment pervading all classes of so- 
ciety, there must be some foundation for it. 
There is no class of people in the world who 
defend slavery except the southern slaveholders. 

I heard my friend from Kentucky the other 
day speak of slavery. His very speech would 
convince me that what he was speaking of was 
the exception and not the rule. He spoke of 
his own kindness to the slaves, of the relations 
that existed between him and his slaves — a pa- 
triarchal and kindly relation. That would not 
be interfered with in the slightest degree, if 
these slaves had the right to their own persons, 
to their own families, and their own children 
Slavery in Kentucky to my certain knowledge 
is in the mildest form in which it can exist in 
any community ; but still there is that legal 
right of the master to sell the slave, to tear 
asunder the domestic relations, to banish for- 
ever the husband from the wife, the parent from 
the child, the child from the mother. There is 
the absolute subjection of the slave to the will 
of the master. These things are not justified 
by the moral sentiment of the civilized world. 
They are not justified by the sentiment of any 
of the people of the northern States. I do not 
think they are justified by the sentiment of all 
the people of the southern States. But however 
that may be, I stand here upon my recorded 
promise, upon my recorded oath. Whatever I 
may think of this institution, I am bound in 
honor, by every obligation which can rest upon 
a man, not to interfere with it in the slightest 
degree in the States, but .leave it to the action 
of the States unless they themselves call for our 
aid, and then that aid shall be freely given, to 
the extent of my ability. 



/p. 



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